Project 25

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

“Project 25 is a single player episode, made by me, with 30 minutes of playtime set in the Half-Life 2 universe. The episode is a part of my final year project to get a Bachelour of art. The goal is to create a unique single player experience while still keeping the episode true to the original. Voice acting is performed by Kelly Harrigan, Edwyn Tiong and Emelie Isacsson. Choreography, manuscript, story, level design, lighting and overall visuals are made by me. All textures, props are made by Valve Corporation.”

44 Comments

This mod has a sensible setting (not story), great voice acting (Except for the very last second – more on that later), beautiful visuals and great gameplay.

let’s look at the above in a little more detail. Firstly, I’ve called this a setting because in 30 minutes of gameplay you can’t really have a great story unless you have text or cutscenes. That’s not a criticism of the mo, just a mini-rant that I’ll expand on another time.

The voice acting really is pretty good, definitely a cut above most mods. That last part? Well…SPOILER BELOW
When Alyx speaks to you it’s just silly. Up to that point everything was fantastic but this slightly took the edge of it. It’s amazing how something so small can affect you, isn’t it? Let’s not dwell on that because that really is the only negative.

Onto the visuals. Perhaps the use of HDR is annoying, but that’s me rather than the mod. I don’t actually like HDR very much and generally turn it off anyway. It’s hard to believe that one person made this in 3 months because just looking at the screenshots makes you think there is a team involved.

And that brings me to the gameplay. There were a couple of jumping sections, a couple of puzzles with the power plugs (I did get mine stuck, so be careful where you throw or drag them!), some nice sections with a fairly unobtrusive squad.

The last area is absolutely fragtastic and the author should be very proud of himself.

All in all a brilliant piece of work.

Mini Bug report: It’s possible to fall through the fall in the radioactive slug at the beginning. (See image 3). It’s not a big deal becasue only idiots like me go running around radioactive slug anyway.

Looks good, plays nice. Unexpectedly good for one man development. I enjoyed it mostly. But again there were some performance issues for me. Maybe it is just me, two unoptimized mod at the same time is a little interesting.
Mod uses Episode 2 elements real good, so this is a good mod.

While not perfect, these couple of maps do have a professional feel about them, both in art direction and overall solid gameplay.
While it’s not free of problems (I actually managed to totally break the puzzle with the plugs due to HL2’s terrible cable physics), the pacing is quite good and you spend the right amount of time in each area. Progress makes sense, and the enemy placement and importante increases as you go on until a nice final battle.
There are some occassional small moments of confussion, as for example finding a door exactly the same as others you just opened (that is, a fence-door without a lock) that now has just become eye candy. While the lighting is quite good, upon closer inspection it’s not always corresponding to the object emitting light, and in some places it seemed there wasn’t any. Phantom lighting is not the only thing that needs a source, as some Combine force fields magically appear without any force field supports nearby. I guess the author woul’ve fixed these issues with more time, as it’s clear he masters props and their placement.
As civanT mentioned, I suffered a very noticeable framerate drop while going into the second section of the tunnel. Be it the HDR lighting, props, npcs, sprites etc, that area was above the engines capabilities.

If you are looking for a short fun couple of maps with solid visuals and gameplay, don’t waste a second and download this. Most of the issues I found are certainly things you might not see at first. As for the issues that affect gameplay, none are really show-stoppers so you’ll be fine.

Whilst this is a well constructed mod with plenty of action it however gives us nothing new. The whole mod seems to follow a familiar theme set within surrounds that could have come from countless other mods, the action was also very predictable and for me the mod was lacking any uniqueness in either gameplay or set design..

The end encounter with the Gunship was ill constructed, having to keep going down stair into a cellar to reload with a squad of rebels following and blocking your ever move was not smart. One of the girl rebels gets stuck in the cellar and if this happens on the stairs then you need to reload and hope see get stuck else where.

None of the above should deter any one from downloading and playing Project 25, compared with most of the recent postings this has a lot to offer. It won’t make my HOF but then who cares.

I would say this mod is a “Play It Now” relative to a lot of the other drivel that has come out recently, but it would be a “Play it Later” otherwise.

It’s not a bad mod, but it ultimately failed to make me “feel” anything. I never understood what was at my destination, so when I was told it was overrun and how we needed to get to another destination, I was apathetic and just going through the motions. A collapsed tunnel lined with radioactive slime, forcing me to use the Gravity Gun. A wire puzzle straight out of that radio tower area in Episode 2. Find batteries to open a gate. Stop me if you heard this one before.

To its credit, you don’t see many mods using these features (except that battery bit – all the kids are doing it now) or integrating the Gravity Gun this seamlessly into gameplay. But then, because the puzzle is so familiar, it doesn’t do anything thought-provoking and therefore exudes a “been there, done that” feeling. The moment with the Combine Sniper could have been a novel idea, but the furniture was too imprecise to move.

The levels themselves are pretty well designed. The tenement complex and the surrounding ruins were definitely standouts. Comparatively, the latter half of the tunnel sequence didn’t feel optimized at all and the bright lighting didn’t seem appropriate. The part with the Combine forcefields in the tunnels definitely had some quirks to it and would have benefit from some playtesting. Aside from being unable to shoot through them, it wasn’t clear when they were deactivated.

I share mel’s criticism with the final area. While it looks great, it’s poorly designed for a Combine Gunship battle. Not only is there the issue of going back and forth to the ammo cache (my rebels were picked off by that sniper pretty early, admittedly), but the Gunship itself was too far away. When I launched a rocket, most of the time it would just get shot down. It didn’t feel like there was much skill to the battle. Just get lucky and hope the Gunship doesn’t notice your incoming projectile?

So, in conclusion, if you’re looking for a good mod that will hold your attention for a half-hour, this is worth checking out.

Am I the only one to have a problem right at he start of the mod?
When I first materialise I am stuck between the TV and the sofa, and can’t move. I can jump and crouch but no moving!
Used noclip and all well therafter!

The only fault I noticed at the start – and maybe it’s just me – was that the Game Volume slider was set to zero. No sound at the beginning. Took me a bit to figure out what was wrong, and the first time that’s happened in a mod.

i did your results and emailed them to you today. should I keep my answers tooo my self???? naw. it was great, I hope after you get your degree you will make us more and longer mods to play.
p.s. if your teacher doesnt like it or gives you a bad grade, pease remind him/her I am very good with a crowbar. hehe. good luck….

Brilliant. We want more!! PLEASE!!!!
I think Alyx turning up is just a way to end it. Pity that.
The last area was very well designed. It was obviously deliberate to make it awkward to shoot the gunship.
This just added to the challenge and the satisfaction in victory.
If it was longer I would give it a “Personal Favoutite’. Well done Filip Coulianos and team.

Not really a Hall-of-Famer (too short) or a Personal Favorite (occasional frame-rate issues and clipping problems); but definitely a Play-it-Now. Congrats to the author for a much-better-than-average map pack.

I thought it was pretty good but there were some flaws which prevented it from getting top marks. The main one is the frame rate. I have a high-end PC and I was experiencing some serious slow-down, particularly in the tunnel. This is nothing to do with the engine, it is because of poor optimization on the designer’s part. This shows a clear lack of understanding of areaportals and hint brushes, which are crucial for making your map run smoothly.

I also found most of the combat to be somewhat mundane as I could avoid firing a single bullet in many instances. For example, I jumped past nearly all the barnacles, I let the Combine and zombies kill each other, and I let my team mates kill most of the Combine at the end. I kind of made me feel like I wasn’t really needed.

The visuals were mostly good save for a certain je ne sais quoi that kept them from being great. The voice acting was good, except for the woman who comes to show you the rocket launcher at the end.

It has potential and is a blast to play for a little while, but I would not agree that it’s worthy of the Hall of Fame until these annoyances have been addressed.

I liked every minute, especially the last area, very well done.
No framerate problems for me, but one of the squadmembers blocked the stairs, had to reload.
The sniper was very easy to kill, one handgrenade through the window did the job.
It was short, but every minute was worth playing.

A great mod all around. I chose the coward’s way out with the sniper, and regretted not being able to go back and off ’em. Otherwise I had a great time. The final area was mildly disorienting, but once I figured out where the combine would arrive, it was reasonable. A strong showing from the developer!

Downloaded it and played most of it. While I can say it’s quite a nice mod, and looks professionally done, I had a few issues with it. Mainly with framerates in certain areas or when looking in certain directions. i.e when in the underground car park/tunnel near the beginning. Looking towards the fire at the end and walking towards hit my framerates pretty bad, even after dropping down to 800×600 with everything on low.
I can play HL2 Episode 1 and 2 with everything on high with HDR on full and 4xAA.I’m intrigued to know why this happens, as it’s not the only mod that it happens on.

Maybe it’s me just getting too damn spoiled with all the other mods and fps games out there but this was no way a demo that should be considered for the Hall Of Fame. It has no originality at all and it was not even scary or that much of a challenge at any time. We have allready figured out that a sniper is really an easy kill using the rocket launcher so that was a no brainer and the electrical cord switch puzzle was fun for a minute but then what?

There was nothing here to keep me really excited or wanting more. But then I just played Fear 2 and Halo and Alpha Prime , which does take a little thinking to work through.The original Hl2 has some of the best and toughest puzzles around and kept me working to finish. This was too easy and has no heavy action feel to it. There is nothing new in this at all and even though it is done well and looks good, it lacks any real excitemnt.

The fighing is all done pretty much in one open area which is a bombed out group of buildings and I did all that hunting around for the batteries for nothing! It’s also hard to fight the enemy in this type of enviroment with all the debri and it makes it hard to tell the good guys from the bad when their far off or shooting from different levels of the buildings. So, it is worth playing but I really hope the whole mod is alot more exciting and more of a challenge then this was. The voices were ok but for me their a minor part of a game anyway. Just there for directions anyway, dosen’t do anything to enhance the gameplay.. I hope the author can try to get away from HL a little and come up with some original storyline besides just the basic rescue.

I enjoyed the fact that one individual could accomplish such a nice piece in such a short time.Content was good, visuals were great, played smoothly and the combat was just right.I particularly enjoyed the last map.It showed so much post-battle destruction so well and created a good atmosphere for the hunting around and slaughtering combine.I’d love to add more, but it’s quite late.

Other than frame rate issues in the beginning, this mod played smoothly with no glitches or bugs.

The final map with the gunship and combine battle made for a nice challenge. Lots of places to take cover and pick off combine and take shots at the gunship as it circled around the map. Visuals were nearly perfect.

Anytime there are rebels following me in a confined area, they always seem to get in my way. However, I didn’t have to say “get the **** out of my way” too many times. They don’t listen anyway.

The addition of zombies trying to beat their way thru a force field made me laugh. Not long enough for a PF but a solid PIN.

Nice mod! The Zombies and the force field made my day! It was like, it started off with the Rebels in the sewers, going threw an underground tunnel and disabling a Combine outpost, going to another sewer that reminded me of Route Canal, then going upstairs to the city, resucing prisoners, a little battery puzzle, and then the ambush, then finished! The battery and plug puzzle was pretty easy since I did them before, and the ambush was pretty obvious. I liked it though. Thanks for making this, and I hope for you to make another one.

[spoiler]
Wasn’t Alyx captured in the Citadel at this time? Why did she show up in the ending? And it wasn’t sunset before going in the citadel.
[/spoiler]

Unfortunately this doesn’t stand the test of time, but that’s pretty obvious if the author only intended to mimic the original story/setting. And quite a setting it is, I can almost identify with the main character in this mod.
But the nice intro stops here, as an invisible wall stops me from going to the buggy and only 25fps greet me in the zombine area! Map needs serious optimization. And it definitely needed more testing, after the combine room turned red, I couldn’t access the ammo crate + chargers, as if the shield was back up but invisible.. and the shield that held back some enemies is now down but still making the sound, so some triggers here got mixed up.
No one mentioned issues with the HUG, well mine was a bit messed up and again, low fps when fighting the welding combine really lowered the quality of that battle. So much potential, if only mod would play ok to be enjoyed to its fullest. Under water, in next area, I can see through walls, but I guess that’s a common problem.
Now in map 2, as we go outside, a believable city 17 unfolds, with a minor texture bug (this roof has a blue lining..). I must complain about the first sniper, or the first occurrence of him, as he is shielded by a window that doesn’t allow nades in! So I just avoided him but took my revenge on the next sniper. The music in the final area was too loud and I couldn’t hear what the 2nd rebel gal had to say; and sometimes the chat message isn’t coming from the right place.. These might be minor issues but definitely broke my immersion. That and the constant low fps made me go UGH while playing it.
It’s a shame that the student didn’t take the time to finish/polish this and release a proper version.

Well I have to say I was pretty satisfied with this mod. And maybe the reason I liked that much in order to recommend it as a Personal Fav is that again in here we have a pretty realistic combat mission in a HL2 pure combat scenario, which is great.

Also this can be like an old school HL2 mods, you know, those where fight in an urban scenario is really important actually, and the whole urban environment was pretty well achieved in this mod.

The combat is intense and dynamic and again being in a urban scenario is just very cool, also the story and voice acting feel very professional and they’re perfectly fit into the mod itself.

Maybe the blandest section of the mod were the sewers that felt quite empty without enemies nor even a single headcrab, but I guess is well compensated with the quite intense zombie fight in the highway tunnel at the very beginning.

Also I can say this mod has an absolute fantastic ambush final section. Which I can say without fear to get wrong it is maybe the best ambush combat scenario scene in any HL2 mod, really outstanding and not even the ones we have in the “Ambushville” PP.com competition mod are as good as this one in here!!! The reason I say that is because I didn’t expected that final ambush at all!!! really got me by surprised and the whole combat was great in there too!!! Man, the one and only thing missed in that ambush were Hunters, but even without them the whole scene was magnificent, and even gives you some time to solve a quick classic battery puzzle. Also the layout of that final map reminded me to the ones in the original HL1 map, where you’re in a bombarded building in Black Mesa and you can actually climb several floors through the wrecks.

In conclusion, this is a quality work. Play It Now, and if you like classic HL2 combat much as me then I guess this is for you and you’re gonna love it.

Pd. even here in 2014 (remember this is a release from 2009) is still fresh and I’m glad I was able to play it in this present time. I also think many modders should learn of this mod as we have an excellent example of how to plan good maps and offer great combat scenarios and situations.

I don’t get why this is rated so highly. It’s certainly not a bad two maps but I certainly didn’t think it was hall of fame material. Apart from some weird lighting in the first area, it’s definitely very pretty to look at, especially the last arena (which is very detailed). I like the Episode One style destroyed city setting as well.

There’s only one real puzzle and it’s not too hard to figure out. As an action mod, it’s decent. I don’t think there’s enough enemy variation, I would have preferred if the author put in some more elites or some antlions along with zambies and combine. The majority About a third of my time playing Project 25 was spent in the last arena, which is a pretty well designed area but I don’t really like long arena battles much. My main issue with the gameplay is that it’s too short and ends really abruptly. There are also a few mapping issues, such as a windowed door which obviously has a concrete wall in front of it and a door with a handle that doesn’t open or make the “locked” animation/sound.

I will say it’s a well-designed mod for the most part, but I guess it just wasn’t my favourite cup of tea. If you don’t mind short mods or large arena battles, I suppose it’s worth playing.

A very nice mod indeed, done in three months and by one person, it is definitely impressive work for the timespan. I liked the pacing, even though I managed to blast through it pretty fast.

The area I liked the most was the brief visit in the insides of the building, I really liked the brushwork and area-design there, as it seemed pretty realistic. The sniper-puzzle was also well-thought out. I managed to figure it out pretty fast, after wasting a grenade trying to solve the thing. On hard shotgunners were a pain in the butt, but they were beat by their own game. Shotguns to the face.

Your average Half-Life 2 mod.
Some puzzles and shooting.
Main complaint was that I saw 2 glass bottles ontop of a fridge. I wanted to break them badly but when I tried to grab them with my orange grab grab gun it turned out they we unmovable.
Really took away from the realism.
Last battle was fine, but a bit too chaotic, all my rebels were killed instantly and I had to keep in the basement picking out induvidual soldiers.

Hi, I’ve just tried this and it does work (well, after adding the Mac files into the BIN folder). However, there’s no HUD so no flashlight etc… Plus I’m not able to manually select any weapons – only the most recently picked up weapon is usable. So, I’m not able to select from the others I’m carrying, like the Gravgun.

However, Project 25 does load/run and is playable, so I’m in two minds whether or not to give this a go if nobody has an idea how to fix the above issue?

Since you have no HUD and are unable to switch weapons I’m assuming the game didn’t give you the HEV suit. There are 2 ways to fix this. The first one is easy – open up the console and type “give item_suit” without the quotations. The other one would be to replace the gameinfo.txt so that the game runs under EP2 instead of SDK 2013.

Thanks to Koneko’s advice to display the HUD, which in turn will fix the weapons/etc (Apple Mac) I was finally able to properly play this great mod. And it is great!! I really liked this from the start with the acid hopping. Sometimes areas like this can become a little tiresome after a while so it was good that the area was well thought out and not too long.

The puzzles are quite simplistic, even for me! But I enjoyed this because it didn’t get in the way of the flow of each part. The action scenes are well-balanced but I felt the areas in the tunnels could have had “more” to them

The end battle was okay but nothing out of this world. Sometimes I wonder why developers think they need the stock gunship battle rather than the adventure ending how it plays through. Overall, this is a great download and highly recommended. But too short. Really wanted it to go on a lot further than it did…